WWE Cruiserweight Championship Tournament Semi-Finals Revealed

On this week’s 205 Live, the ongoing tournament to crown Buddy Murphy’s WrestleMania challenger continued. In the opening bout, Humberto Carrillo took on NXT tag team specialist Oney Lorcan. Following that, former Cruiserweight Champions Cedric Alexander and Akira Tozawa faced off for the first time in singles competition.

Last week in the cruiserweight division, Tony Nese best Kalisto while Drew Gulak put down former friend The Brian Kendrick. This has set up a semi-final match between the two men who put on one of the most memorable bouts of the tournament’s 2018 edition which will take place next week.

On this episode, Lorcan and Carrillo put on a decent performance, although it was riddled with mistakes here and there. Despite that, the two got over with the crowd and even hit them with a surprise as Lorcan managed to land his half-and-half suplex for a pinfall victory, sending him into the semi-finals.

It is interesting to see Carrillo dropped from the tournament so quickly after a sharp rise in the division following his debut this year. Lorcan, on the other hand, also seems to be sticking around as the commentary team put over the idea that he is similar to 205 Live commentator Aiden English in that he was an NXT tag specialist who is flourishing as a singles star.

Whether this will remain the case following the tournament is unknown but as far as we know, he is still fighting alongside his Brit-Am Bruiser partner Danny Burch on NXT so who knows.

In the night’s main event, Alexander and Tozawa beat the life out of each other, earning “205” chants early on. Big moves were hit and kicked out of until finally, the former managed to come away with the win after an incredibly creative Lumbar Check.

This one seems more fitting as Tozawa was the last man to face Murphy for the title on the Elimination Chamber Kickoff show. They were never going to repeat the match so it was best to get him out early.

Alexander remains one of the top guys in the division and is looking to return to WrestleMania one year on from when he won the title in the first place. It’s a fitting story although I wouldn’t be surprised to see him transition over to either Raw or SmackDown Live following the ‘Show of Shows’ whether he makes it on the card or not.

You can check out the updated tournament bracket below:

The SEMIFINALS kick off next Tuesday on @WWENetwork! #205Live pic.twitter.com/emc5TNX4xX

— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) March 6, 2019

It’s down to Tony Nese, Drew Gulak, Oney Lorcan & Cedric Alexander. Every man has a reason to win so it truly is anyone’s game. Will we see training partners face off with Nese and Murphy? A deserving champion final claim the big one in Gulak? The Cinderella story play out with Lorcan? Or will we see Alexander repeat his achievement of last year and make it back to the top of the purple mountain?

• 205 live
• tournament
• BUDDY MURPHY
• wwe

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